


Macaria

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: Yuma is a Girl [22]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Gender or Sex Swap, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-21
Updated: 2017-10-21
Packaged: 2019-01-20 20:14:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12440793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: Yuma blinks a few times. “Do you mean to tell me,” she says slowly, “That the masked child-like…person I saw on the floor next to Hart is your father?”





	Macaria

**Author's Note:**

> This is in place of episodes 46-49, which felt out of place to me in the original series, but end up with the same result. You'll see what I mean.

Yuma stares at the empty spot in her frame where her last heart piece should go. Orbital made secure communication links for Ryoga, Kite, and Yuma, and Ryoga just used it to let her know that Hart is still okay, and Kite left early in the morning. Kite and Ryoga have all their heart pieces, and Yuma needs to get her last one so she can participate in this tournament and make sure the plan succeeds. She needs to go out and duel, but she’s so unmotivated. She’s been lying in her bed all morning, telling herself to get up while she makes no move to do so. Astral isn’t even trying to get her to get up, he’s lying next to her with his head on her shoulder.

“Should I bother?” Yuma asks him.

“You told Ryoga and Kite that you would,” Astral says. “We did have a hard battle last night. Watching Hart suffer…I’ve never felt such hopelessness before.”

Yuma clings to Astral and burrows her face in his soft hair. “What are we going to do?”

Astral shrugs. “Yuma…I’m afraid.”

“Yeah, me too,” Yuma says.

“Not just for the near future,” Astral says. “But…after. After we collect the Numbers and I regain my memories. What will I do then? What will become of…this? Us? I never thought, when I first met you, that I would feel such terrible pain at the thought of leaving you to complete my mission.”

“Well, to hell with your mission, then,” Yuma says. “So you were sent here to do something, that doesn’t mean you have to do it, especially if you’ve grown to dislike what that mission was. You are your own being, and you have free will. No one can force you to do anything. You can live with me for the rest of our lives, if that’s what you want.”

Astral looks up at Yuma in shock. “Is it that simple?”

“I see no reason why it wouldn’t be,” Yuma says.

“Yuma!” Akari yells, “Your friend Michael is here to see you.”

Yuma frowns. “Who?” She calls, sure she’s heard wrong. She doesn’t know anyone named Michael. She untangles herself from Astral, rolls off her bed and opens her bedroom door, and shrieks loudly. “CHRIST IN A HAND BASKET!”

III holds out his hands, “I come in peace! I—”

Yuma shoves him, hard, and he stumbles into the wall behind him. She snatches a decorative crystal point from her bedside table and brandishes it at III like a sword. “What do you want?” She demands.

III looks at the floor. He holds out his hand. “This is for you,” he says, showing Yuma the heart piece in his palm. “You won last night.”

Yuma relaxes. He really does seem to come in peace, so she puts the crystal down once more and takes the heart piece. “Thanks,” she says. “Was…that it?”

“No,” III says. “I came to apologize. You were right. Letting Hart go through that, standing back and watching, there was no excuse. He’s a child, he did nothing wrong. I feel terrible about it, and I don’t want to support…” he breaks off, choking back tears.

Yuma reaches out and takes III’s hand. “You told my sister your name was Michael, right?” She asks. III nods, and Yuma smiles. “Hi Michael, it’s nice to meet you.”

Michael smiles slightly.

“C’mon,” Yuma says, beckoning for Michael to follow her. “I wanna show you something.” She leads him up to her attic and watches Michael’s eyes go wide as he takes in all the artifacts in the attic.

For hours, Yuma and Michael talk about the treasures that Yuma’s father collected. Yuma shows Michael the meticulously maintained documents that spell out where each piece came from, who excavated it, who sold it, and so on.

“A lot of these pieces are things that dad unearthed himself,” Yuma says. “The pieces are common and museums pass them on for auction, or they’re slightly broken or discolored. And some of them were privately excavated from land that my dad’s family owns in Brazil, which is also where a lot of the crystal comes from. Dad harvested some of it himself, but some of it was given to him by family friends.”

“What about the dinosaur skull?” Michael asks.

Yuma winks. “The skull is fake, but most of the teeth are real. Think you can pick out which ones are and which ones aren’t?”

Once Michael passes that test with flying colors, they turn to talking about Michael’s deck.

“I’m a big believer in looking for evidence of other dimensions by studying the past,” he says.

“Like, aliens built the pyramids kind of things?” Yuma asks skeptically.

“No,” Michael says with a laugh, “More like, the ancients were just as curious about space and other universes as we are, and I think they were more successful at making contact.”

“I can believe it,” Yuma says. “So that’s what you build your deck around?”

Michael nods, and he looks sad. “My family wasn’t always like this.”

“I bet,” Yuma blurts. “So what happened?”

Michael frowns. “Dr. Faker happened. He betrayed my father and sacrificed him to Barian world in order to save Hart. My father was warped by his time in Barian world; he escaped, but became what you saw last night.”

Yuma blinks a few times. “Do you mean to tell me,” she says slowly, “That the masked child-like…person I saw on the floor next to Hart is your _father?”_

“What’s left of him,” Michael says sadly.

Yuma bites the inside of her mouth so she won’t say something terribly insensitive. “Okay,” she says slowly. She glances at Astral, who hovers next to her, and looks just as incredulous as she feel. “And, um…he’s the one who…wanted Hart’s power?” Yuma asks.

Michael sighs. “He’s behind everything. He gave Thomas—that’s my brother IV’s real name—the card that caused Ryoga’s sister to be burned. He didn’t know it would happen. When Chris came for Hart, I don’t think he knew that Hart would be hurt. None of us wanted this.”

Yuma can’t hold her tongue any longer. “That doesn’t excuse their actions,” she says coldly, “People always have a choice. You and your brothers could have asked questions before you blindly followed your father’s orders. Maybe Rio’s injuries should have been a wakeup call that what your father wanted was, I don’t know, illegal? Immoral? Just plain wrong? Did it set off any alarms in your head that maybe, just maybe, you should stop listening to him?”

“But he’s our father,” Michael says desperately. “He wants to be his old self again, we want that too.”

“Okay, let me ask you this,” Yuma says, “The man you knew as your father, would he ever allow your brothers to hurt anyone? Would he have given Thomas a card that would hurt a twelve year old girl, or told Chris to abduct a child so he could be tormented in front of his brother?”

Michael begins to cry. “No,” he says. “My father would never do that.”

Yuma takes Michael’s hands. “Then that person is not your father,” she says. “He may have your father’s name and memories, but he’s a monster. That’s the only way to describe someone who could condone all of this.”

“But I still love him,” Michael weeps.

“Do you think he’ll be happy, when all this is over?” Yuma asks. “When he goes back to being the man you once knew, do you think he’ll be proud of himself? Of you and your brothers? Or would he be horrified?”

Michael bows his head. Yuma squeezes his hands. “Sometimes loving people means making choices for them that they may not agree with. If that were my dad, I would have taken him to a hospital where professionals might have been able to help him. If he couldn’t be helped,” Yuma’s voice breaks, “Then at least he would be somewhere that he couldn’t hurt people. My father never forced me to do anything I didn’t want to do. Well, once he took me on a hike and I didn’t want to go, but he didn’t yell or scream at me, he was very patient, and we weren’t hurting anyone, and he wasn’t hurting me. In the end, the experience helped me grow as a person. That’s what parents are supposed to do for their children, help them grow, not tell them to hurt other people.”

Yuma lets go of Michael’s hands, and he wipes his face. “You’re right,” he says. “And deep down I knew that, and I think my brothers do, too.”

Well, Yuma has doubts about Thomas, but maybe Chris knows. And speaking of knowing…“Do they know you’re here?” Yuma asks.

“They might,” Michael says. “I told them that I didn’t want to hurt people anymore. Thomas accused me of falling prey to you and the messenger from Astral world.”

Yuma’s temper flares once more. “Astral is just about the most innocent person involved in this,” she says. “He’s done absolutely nothing because he has no idea what he’s here to even _do._ He lost his memories and they’re in the Numbers cards, so honestly the Numbers powers are completely useless to anyone but Astral because all they are, are his memories!!”

Michael sighs. “People are afraid of Astral world for some reason. I don’t know why.”

Yuma flings herself on to her back. “Well, perfect,” she growls, staring up at the ceiling. She grabs the key and squeezes it. “Astral, do you want to destroy the world?”

“Of course not!” Astral cries.

“Good,” Yuma says. She looks up at Michael. “He says no.”

Michael smiles and Yuma sits up again. “So, what are you going to do now?” She asks him.

“I’m going to go home,” Michael says, “And I’m going to confront my brothers, and my father. I’m going to duel my father.”

“Whoa, hang on there, Macaria,” Yuma cries, grabbing Michael by the sleeve as he moves towards the ladder. “Maybe we can come up with a plan doesn’t involve you sacrificing yourself, yeah? If you have to confront your father, can’t you just punch him in the face and be done with it?”

Michael actually chuckles. “I don’t think it would be that easy. I think I need to do something drastic to get my brothers to wake up. And maybe I can get through to my father. I am his youngest son, maybe I’ll be able to reach some part of him that remembers how things used to be.”

Yuma frowns. “I’m not going to convince you otherwise, am I?”

Michael shakes his head. Yuma gets to her feet, and when Michael stands, she hugs him.

“I wish you luck,” Yuma says. “Whether you succeed or not, you have a friend in this house, and you’re always welcome here.”

Michael hugs her awkwardly and Yuma leans back to glare at him. “Oh please, hug me like you mean it boy, it doesn’t mean we’re getting married.”

Michael laughs, and he hugs Yuma properly. “Sorry,” he says, “It’s…been a while.”

Yuma feels like her heart is breaking for this boy. When Michael backs away, Yuma grabs a piece of paper and writes her phone number on it. “Text me later, if you can,” she says, trying ignore the lump in her throat.

After Michael leaves, Yuma slips the last heart piece into the frame. It fits perfectly.

 

 

Michael never does contact her.

**Author's Note:**

> From Wikipedia :
> 
> Macaria is a daughter of Heracles. After Heracles's death, King Eurystheus pursues his lifelong vendetta against the hero by hunting down his children. Macaria flees with her siblings to Athens, where they are received by Demophon, the king.  
> Arriving at the gates of Athens with his army, Eurystheus gives Demophon an ultimatum, threatening war upon Athens unless Demophon surrenders Heracles's children. When Demophon refuses and begins to prepare for war, an oracle informs him that Athens will be victorious only if a noble maiden is sacrificed to Persephone. Upon hearing this, Macaria sees that her only choice is immediate death on the altar or eventual death at the hands of Eurystheus. Since in neither case will she be granted a normal, happy life, she offers herself as the victim to save the welcoming city and its inhabitants, declining a lottery that would put other girls at risk.


End file.
